Childre7is Fete at Madras. 453 



In the evening a number of officers, with their wives, met 

 us at dinner at Lieut.-Colonel McCally's house. The gaieties 

 were prolonged till far in the evening, music and songs 

 alternating with round games and dancing, so that we had 

 hardly composed ourselves to sleep ere we were awakened 

 by the servants, in order to avoid missing the train, which 

 leaves Vellore for Madras at 6.30 a.m. By 11 a.m., we were 

 once more in the chief city of the Carnatic. 



The same afternoon the officers of the Novara, and the 

 naturalists of the Expedition, were invited to an Indian fete, 

 which Lord Harris gave every year at this season in his 

 palace at Guindy Park, and to which it was customary to 

 invite the majority of the European residents at Madras, 

 together with their families, — military, civil service, and mer- 

 cantile community, all being honoured with cards. This 

 festival originated in a children's entertainment, which the 

 governor had been in the habit of giving on the birthday 

 of his son ; the latter had long since gone to an English 

 University, but the custom had survived, and the day was 

 equally carefully observed this year also, having been looked 

 forward to for months before by the " white " young folks of 

 Madras. The entertainment still retains the character of 

 a children's party, inasmuch as on the present occasion 

 there were assembled above 250 children of both sexes, 

 varying from 5 to 12 years of age. The total number of 

 guests who, in addition to these, shared in the festivities 

 was probably more than a thousand. The fete began with 



